Bad viz, we got lost, need advice

[buleetu]

hi everyone

the other day my self and my buddy done a dive, the viz was absolutly terrible but when we got to the actual blocks of coral we were looking for it was fine, there are 5 blocks in a row with a sandy and grassy hill up the left of the site, we headed toward the 4th block which is in 10 metres on one side and 15 or so on the far side, its like a big hill that goes deeper and deeper down the bay, we stayed at the forth block and went around a couple of times, we then signalled each other to head for the 5th block but we never made it there, normally we would head in a southerly direction to the grassy hill decend down to 18 or 20 metres then turn right again out to the 5th block but we could see the 5th block anywhere and we ended up going in a circle, our max depth was 16 metres on this dive, basically we missed the 5th block by a couple of metres and went right by it heading along parrelle(sorry for bad spelling) to the shore, we went right by our exit and went about 50 metres in the wrong direction, mu buddy couldnt navigate underwater even though she had a lot more dives then me, and i couldnt either because ,y training in navigation was brutal to say the least and she also had the compass attached to her console, so were in 10 metres and i say enough is enough, i signal to surface to find out where abouts we are, we surface get our berrings and its simply a mater of heading in a straight line to the 2nd block where we could have enjoyed the next 30 mintues or so of our dive, i had 130 bar and she had the same, i wanted to go back down to 10 metres and enjoy the reef but she said no and called the dive>??

would u agree with her and call it or would u continue to the 10 metre deep 2nd block to finish the dive, we were only in the water 15 mintues or so with 15 litre tanks and the dive times are usually 70 mintues ish

thanks guys

 

[TSandM]

This is kind of the ultimate sawtooth profile, surfacing and then redescending, but I have done it. If it's the only dive you are doing that day, and if you haven't been very deep or deep for very long, and if the ascent to check your whereabouts is controlled, I think it's probably okay.

It's not something you would want to do repeatedly during a dive.

Sounds like some navigation practice would be in order. BTW, I found having a compass on a console was a very unsatisfactory setup for me. I vastly prefer having a compass on my wrist, where it is easy to reference and keep my hands free. Compass navigation is critical here in the PNW, where visibility is frequently so poor that, if you pass what you are looking for even a few feet off, you won't see it. I suspect conditions off the Irish Coast may be pretty similar.

 

[Doc]

If one party says, no, you follow.

That said, if I understand what you have laid out- you did a quick 15 min dive with a max of 60fsw and after surfacing for bearings, you wanted to restart the dive with lots of air in a max depth of 30fsw?

I would have said, okay with me!

 

[teddyg04]

Even in clear water, navigation is a vital skill (personal experience!). Get in touch with your LDS, and ask about a class in navigation. PADI has a nav specialty, but just doing the classwork and basic exercises isn't enough. Get with an experienced instructor, and really learn to navigate. You'll enjoy your dives more, no matter what the vis, once you lose the anxiety that comes with not being sure where you are - or where you boat is!

Good diving.

 

[miketsp]

If you're not that experienced you'll find the use of a buddy line in very low vis significantly reduces task loading and increases comfort level.
You can concentrate on navigation without constantly worrying about losing contact. You always know where your partner is and any problem can be signalled immediately.
I always have a 5ft length of 1/4" bungee coiled in my cummerbund pocket. There is a loop tied at each end just big enough to slip a hand in.

 

[buleetu]

thanks everyone for ur replies, yes ts and m the viz here is bad too as far as i know, i have often looked into the water from the surface while fishing in the summer time and most of the time its hard to see more than a couple of feet

what really gets me sometimes is the insta buddies i get while diving in egypt on holidays, i always have a chat with them and try to get a feel for what they will be like in the water, its weird when they say "i have been diving 5 years and i have a couple of hundred dives in my logbook,im advanced open water,everything will be fine,lets go" but when were in the water they look uncomfortable or in this case dont have the foggiest notion how to use there compass, or worse still they burn through there air 3 times as fast as i do,a diver with 40 odd dives, all the fancy scubapro and mares equipment they have hanging out of them is no way to judge either, im defo gonna join a club or a local shop this summer so i can get in the cold water as soon as possible, im starting to get fed up with having to wait a couple of months between dives and then when i get there i feel like a solo diver sometimes or worse still,half a baby sitter, some of these guys are twice my age

the other day we had a dive to 22 metres on a reef with viz for miles it seemed,roasting hot water,with no current under the surface, i was with a father,his daughter,and her boyfriend, they were lovely people but underwater i didnt feel too happy with them at all, they were all on there 50th dive or something like that,which is similar to me, my buddy,the dad, kept disappering to near the surface because he was underweighted or just kept putting air in his bc or something, and the couple looked as if they were on a valentines day special treat in the love palace with all there kissing and eating each others bubbles underwater and the dancing they were attempting to do was hilarious, fair enough, we all want to have fun underwater but i think this was a little too far at times, the thing was 15 mintues into the dive, which should have gone on for 60 mintues at least, the guide gets a signal for 100 bar and then a few mintues later the 50 bar signal, so here we are cutting our dive early because this guy insisted on doing loop the loops with his bird to impress her, after them both taking turns sharing air with the guide we all surface to considerably higher waves than at the start of the dive,the poor girl is on 20 bar and the waves are bashing us, so she keeps putting the regulator in and out of her mouth to breath easily in the waves while were swimming to the boat, so i suggest to the father that he give his snorkle to his child so she can swim face down with no effort to keep taking her head out of the water to breath, and he says ye dave thats a great idea, but he didnt do it, and when we get on the boat he lies down on the middle of the deck where everyone is trying to get out of there heavy equipment with the boat rocking around wildly, what was really funny was that he said to his wife "i was just so worried about our girl" and i thought to my self, well u cant have been that worried if she was struggling to breath at the surface and u had a snorkle u werent using, i know im only a new diver and im not trying to be a know it all or anything but surley this behaviour is crazy, u cant be going around underwater dancing and taking regulators out of ur mouth to have a kiss with ur bird, or can u?

thanks guys

 

[BioLogic]

I think it's good to kiss your bird underwater, as long as you continue to let a small stream of bubbles out as you do it.

 

[buleetu]

isint the constant stream of bubbles that should come out of our mouths when we take the regulator out to stop lung over expansion, if we arent moving in the water coloum (sorry for bad spelling) we wont have a lung over expansion injury, or do we do it every time regardless,so we are in a good habit of doing it just incase we are travelling through the water when we have to remove the regulator???



haa the kissing is okay then,thats cool,

but all the dancing and acting the arse is a bit much, especially when you eat threw ur air because of all the extra swimming it takes to pull off some of the moves he was trying to do,i mean i have seen videos of freedivers doing loops and stuff but there perfectly streamlined and not carrying the extra weight of all the equipment,a small group of us have done some tumbles during our 5metre safety stop,but ive never come across someone doing it at 20metres 5 mintues into the dive, ahhh well i suppose we all have different reasons for going diving, mine is to see all the life down there and enjoy being part of another world and perhaps while im there to get some nice pictures and practice my photography,theres a lot of people that wouldnt bother there arse bringing a camera with them on a dive


i guess that is one reason why the girl i was with on the dive with the bad viz wasnt really interested in going back down to 10 metres for the rest of our air, i would stay between 5 and 10 metres for hours taking pictures and trying to perfect my photos but she obviously seen it as a waste of time because the viz was so bad, i knew i would be happy because i had my macro lens on the camera and i would need to be getting close where where the bad viz would make any odds to me

i will have to make it clear to my buddy in the future that if we have bad viz it will be fine for me to stay shallow for the whole dive